Failure to Communicate
by M.L. Shards
Summary: In a gossip fuelled world, Rose tries to keep her facts about her friends and their relationships straight. Mack/Rose Will/Ronny


AN: I have been having such a bad case of writer's block lately, it is not even funny. I've really been trying to break through it, but it has been slow going to far. I present to you, the most complete work I have been able to finish as of late. My last couple stories were written eighty percent a few months earlier and then I simply finished them.

This one is special, this is all new.

I think it's cute, I hope you do too.

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Rose didn't pay much attention to gossip, or even the entertainment industry in general. She preferred to read or watch more legitimate news, and that was that.

She had no idea who Miley Cyrus was, didn't know the name of Angelina Jolie's kids, and could care less about the drama between the half-plastic girls of _The Hills_. She didn't like _TMZ_ or reality television and she could barely stand the idea of selling photos of children for millions of dollars, proceeds going to charity or not. Yet, here she was, on a gossip blogger's website, clicking through posts, trying to figure out what the hell was going on with Ronny.

"I never get told anything." Rose muttered angrily.

The former Yellow Ranger loved attention, and cameras, and _TMZ _and was a racecar driver with more celebrity credibility than any of the other former rangers, so she could still command their attention. It was becoming increasingly hard to get a hold of Ronny by phone as she did endorsements and raced. While the two remained close friends, Rose found herself needing to search the internet to get most of her facts straight since she was constantly questioned by friends about the other woman's personal life.

Most of the time, it wasn't true. Ronny had apparently been married to Tyzonn, dating Xander of all people, pregnant, about to launch a singing career and starring in a remake of _Supergirl _all within the past two years. None of those things had really happened, in fact, her and Tyzonn had dated briefly but broken up after a few months, she'd met Xander for coffee when she'd been racing near Briarwood, been looking into acting and Rose had no idea where the other two rumors came from.

This one however, seemed legit, and it was seriously freaking her out.

Ronny and Mack, ring shopping.

She hadn't even known they were together, last she'd heard Ronny was dating Will.

She'd read Perez's post twice, but most of it was claiming disappointment in Mack's sudden status of "taken", _I'm Not Obsessed_ had nothing to say about it and _Pink is the New Blog_ had a write up, proclaiming that something was off and that the two of them hadn't been seen together since their ranger days. She'd read a few others that the sites had linked to and they all appeared to agree that the rumour was actually fact. Normally Rose wouldn't have agreed, she'd know if Mack and Ronny were dating, because she knew with Tyzonn, and was told when Ronny had gone out with Will, so if she was suddenly serious with Mack, she'd thought she'd know.

But _TMZ _had a video.

She'd watched it four times.

It started with Ronny adjusting her sunglasses and moving her purse to the other side of her body. A few of the cameramen having a conversation with Mack, but the former Red Ranger was not very talkative.

"What are you doing?" The cameraman asked.

"Jewelry shopping." Ronny had replied cheerfully and Mack had given a small nod of agreement.

"Oooh, any particular type of jewelry?" The cameraman had pressed.

"Not telling." Ronny said simply.

"Give us a hint."

"It's small and round" Mack replied, rolling his eyes and Ronny punched him in the arm.

"Could we be expecting wedding bells?" Another cameraperson asked and Ronny gave a sly smile, jerking Mack into a nearby store, causing the explorer to nearly smash his head into the doorframe.

Then it ended. It was simple and to the point and Rose had no idea how she was supposed to take this. She supposed if her friends were happy, that's all that really mattered, but she was kind of disappointed she had no idea they were dating and she'd admitted to Ronny long ago that she really liked their curly haired friend…

Rose folded her arms and turned her back to her laptop. If she didn't acknowledge it, it couldn't be true… Nope, if she didn't believe they were getting married, it would not be true. Then she'd still have a chance, and then she wouldn't regret not having the nerve to ask him out, or at least attempt to flirt. Then things would be right.

She sat like this for a few minutes before realizing she was being ridiculous. She must've missed something… they couldn't be dating, or engaged, or whatever. She made a silent promise to herself that if the rumours were false, she was going to do something, maybe get that flirting attempt in… uh, probably not though.

She watched the video again, observing carefully. Mack looked awkward as hell and really embarrassed by all of the attention. Ronny seemed less thrilled to be around the cameras than normal, but there wasn't any interaction between the two that suggested they were a couple. No hand holding or kissing or anything like that, however the media appeared to be trying to mush their names into something and ended up with "Rock" as their answer.

Rose paused as she realized if she went out with Will it could be Rock n' Roll… that would be funny. It also donned on her that both Rose and Ronny started with the same letters so if she was dating Mack and Ronny dated Will it could technically still work…

She frowned as she realized her brain had wandered off, she glanced down at her phone, resting beside her laptop. She was not going to get any work done until she straightened this out. She'd started reading comments below the video on the website and some were very supportive of the new "couple" and others absolutely confused, not unlike herself.

She however, had people she could call, and since she couldn't get a hold of Ronny, she was going to get a hold of Mack. Hopefully he wasn't in Peru by now, being an explorer, his schedule was very strange and she often accidentally woke him up in the middle of the night with calls due to time changes. She dialed his cell phone and it rang three times before she heard a click as he answered the phone. She immediately recognized his voice.

"Hello?" He asked as he picked up the phone, he didn't sound groggy...

"Mack? It's Rose."

"Hey, Rose, how's-"

"Are you getting married to Ronny?" The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them and she winced. Oh, she had not meant to blurt that out like that…

She heard a loud crash as she presumed Mack had walked into a bookcase because he began muttering curses about Arthur Conan Doyle that made little sense. "Ow… no, me? And Ronny? Why would you think that- Oh…Ouch! Stupid book fell on my head…" He paused. "You saw the video, huh?"

"What's going on? I haven't been able to get a hold of Ronny and I haven't talked to you in a while either, I didn't even know you were dating and now you're getting married? What's-"

"ROSE!"

She stopped, flushing a deep red. "Sorry."

"She's still dating Will. Their one year anniversary is next week. She's buying him this cuff-bracelet thing with an engraving on it, she wanted my opinion and wrist size. It was the first time I've seen her in months. Spencer has been fielding calls all day from tabloids trying to debunk the whole wedding rumour. When I said the jewelry was small and round I didn't completely think my wording through, we weren't looking at rings."

Rose felt an odd sense of calm wash over her and she sunk into her chair. "Oh."

She heard Mack snort. "Yeah."

"Well… then… this is a bit awkward."

"A little."

Rose paused again before hesitantly asking. "Uh… are you dating anyone?"

"No, it's a little hard to be taken too seriously when you try to tell them you were an android but you're human now."

"Good point."

There was silence.

"What about you? Seeing anyone?"

"No," Rose sighed. "Uh… maybe we could… see each other?" Rose wrinkled her eyebrows, that sounded pretty lame… and just plain strange, but she was too relieved to think of anything better. In fact, for someone with very limited flirting experience, it had actually gone okay.

"You're right, we haven't talked in a while…" Mack sighed before perking up. "You know… maybe we should get together for coffee or something, I mean, my dad is super rich, I could fly out there and visit you."

Rose let out a groan. He was not supposed to be this unobservant over the phone. "Mack, that's not what I meant. I mean like a date." Her eyes went wide. Had she just asked him out? Shy Rose asking out courageous explorer?

She heard a chuckled on the other end of the phone. "Just making sure."

_One year later…_

Ronny pushed the milk out of the way as she reached in to grab the last piece of pepperoni pizza from the night before. She really needed to clean out her fridge. Her and Will had moved in together a few months earlier, and since neither of them had occupations that allowed them to be at home for long periods of time, a lot of food was going bad.

She let out a sigh as she searched for the television remote. She eventually found it wedged between the sofa cushions, but it would have been much quicker to simply turn the television on by going over to it. She clicked onto _Entertainment Tonight _and let some story about the Jonas Brothers play through as she munched on her dinner.

"Hey, babe." Will greeted, pecking his girlfriend on the cheek. "What's on?"

"Not much." Ronny replied with a shrug.

Will glanced up at the television. "Hey! It's Mack and Rose…"

Ronny frowned as she turned up the volume on the television.

"The young couple was out and about in Paris yesterday, looking in various jewelry stores. Rumours concerning an engagement have been swirling the couple for months-" The young redheaded reported announced and Ronny and Will sat there, wide eyed.

"They're getting engaged? I didn't even know they were dating!" Will remarked as Ronny folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes.

Had Rose been keeping this a secret from her? And how had she missed all the reports of these rumours that had apparently been going around for months? Ronny hated being surprised, especially when it came to her friends. Rose was a hard person to get a hold of though and Ronny was pretty busy herself, but as soon as possible she was calling the two of them and demanding an explanation… and possibly making them get _Facebook _so they could keep in touch better.

"Aw man," she groaned as Will took a place beside her on the couch, effectively sitting on the remote and changing the channel to an episode of _Hannah Montana_, "I never get told anything."

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